Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down, For thou must now know further... Mir. You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd Pro. The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast Out three years old. not Mir. Certainly, Sir, I can. Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? Of any thing the image tell me, that Hath kept with thy remembrance. Mir. 'Tis far off; And rather like a dream, than an assurance Pro. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: But how is it, That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here How thou cam'st here, thou may'st. Mir. But that I do not. Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years since, Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and A Prince of power. Mir. Sir, are not you my father? Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said. thou vast my daughter; and thy father Was Duke of Milan; and his only heir Mir. O the heavens ! What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or blessed was't, we did? Pro. Both, both, my girl : By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence; But blessedly holp hither. Mir. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, further. Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio · Without a parallel; those being all my study,! And to my state grew stranger, being transported, Mir. Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom To trash for over-topping; new created The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'd them To what tune pleased his ear; that now he was I pray thee, mark me. alot: Mir. good Sir, I do. Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate Like a good parent, did beget of him. As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit, To credit his own lie, he did believe Growing, Mir. Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness. Pro. To have no screen between this part he play'd, And him he play'd it for, he needs will be Mir. O the heavens! If this might be a brother? and the event; then tell me, To think but nobly of my grand mother: Pro. Now the condition: This King of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit; Out of the Dukedom; and confer fair Milan, With all the honours, on my brother: Whereon, A treacherous army levy'd, one midnight Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness; The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me, and thy crying self. Mir. Alack, for pity! I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then, That wrings mine eyes. Pro. Hear a little further, And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now's upon us; without the which, this story Were most impertinent. Mir. Wherefore did they not That hour destroy us? Pro. Well demanded, wench; My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not; (So dear the love my people bore me,) nor set A mark so bloody on the business; but With colours fairer painted their foul ends. Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd In Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us, To cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again, Did us but loving wrong. Mir. Alack! what trouble Was I then to you! Pro. O a cherubim Thou wast, that did preserve me! smile Infused with a fortitude from heaven, Thou didst When have deck'd the sea with drops full salt; Against what should ensue. Pro. By Providence divine. Some food we had, and some fresh water, that A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, Out of his charity, (who being then appointed Master of this design,) did give us; with Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, Which since have steaded much: 60, of his gent leness, Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me, Mir. 'Would I might But ever sce that man! Pro. Now I arise: Sit still, and hear the last of our sea - sorrow. Have I, thy school-master, made thee more proût I VOL. I. |